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AMHERST, Mass. – Noah Enelow, a graduate student in economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been awarded a Fulbright grant to conduct research on the economics of the Peruvian coffee sector.

Fulbright grants are awarded to U.S. citizens and nationals of other countries for a variety of educational activities, primarily university lecturing, advanced research, graduate study and teaching in elementary and secondary schools. Since the program’s inception, more than 250,000 participants—chosen for their leadership potential—have had the opportunity to observe each other’s political, economic and cultural institutions.

Enelow received his bachelor’s degree in literature from Yale University in 1999. He says he became interested in economics “out of a desire to understand the forces of globalization, and assist in shaping those forces in a direction that was beneficial for everyone, including the people who had been historically excluded from reaping the benefits of economic growth.”

Enelow will focus his research on the experiences of the small coffee growers of Peru in order to gain more practical knowledge, experience, and inter-cultural awareness. He says, “In addition to meeting and getting to know these people, I hope to make a concrete and useful contribution to their livelihoods, through studying the process by which they and their importer buyers agree upon mutually beneficial contracts, and evaluating these contracts from the perspective of economic efficiency and social equity. In particular, I aim to study the impact of the Fair Trade system on this process.”

Enelow also plans to enjoy the culture and landscape of Peru. He says, “I aim to enjoy the country of Peru and all that it has to offer, from the heights of Macchu to the biodiversity of the Amazon and the extraordinary people of the Andean altiplano.” Enelow will be chronicling his journey online on his blog at http://fairtradecoffeeinperu.blogspot.com. #264-06